Márta Lesznyák: A longitudinal investigation of translation trainees’ translation and post-editing competence development I
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1 Literature review
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1.6 Empirical studies on post-editing
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1.6.5 Perceptions of PE (real-life experiences with and reactions to working with PE)
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1.6.5.1 Perceptions of difficulty in traditional human translation and post-editing

1.6.5.1 Perceptions of difficulty in traditional human translation and post-editing

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When perceived difficulty is examined in the context of translation or post-editing, it is often interpreted as an indicator of subjective effort. This section presents a selection of studies that have investigated the perceived difficulty of traditional translation tasks or post-editing tasks.

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Cui and Zheng (2021) investigated the relationship between perceived task difficulty and consultation behaviour, where consultation referred to researching information. The subjects in the study included 38 MA students in translation, who were instructed to translate two 100-word texts from English into Chinese. The results revealed a positive correlation between task perception and consultation behaviour: students who perceived the task as more difficult tended to spend more time on consultation, that is, on information seeking. Additionally, the increased perceived difficulty was associated with a greater number of resources consulted.

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Carla Quinci’s comprehensive study (2023) focused on translation trainees’ translation processes and products. The investigation included a self-report questionnaire with items on perceived text difficulty, main types of difficulties in the source text (e.g., lexical, syntactic), perceived adequacy of time allowed for the translation task, self-assessment and several other factors. Of the numerous findings reported, a key one with relevance to the present investigation is the negative correlation observed between perceived text difficulty and translation competence. In other words, the higher the level of competence, the lower the perceived difficulty was. Furthermore, the types of problems identified varied by competence level. Novices tended to report mainly lexical problems, intermediate students identified syntactic challenges, and professionals often indicated that they did not encounter any specific difficulties while translating. In addition, when more competent translators did identify problems, the problems reported tended to be related to more complex elements in the source text.

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

One of the most cited pioneering studies on post-editors’ efforts was conducted by Koponen (2012). Her findings suggested that sentence length affects the cognitive effort necessary for identifying errors and planning the corrections. Nevertheless, she presented evidence that subjective perceptions of effort do not necessarily correspond to actual effort.

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

Rossetti and Gaspari (2017) examined the effect of task type on perceived difficulty. They compared the use of TM with post-editing MT output and found that perceived difficulty was lower in the TM condition. A possible explanation for their finding could be that TM is more likely to provide correct translation solutions. In contrast, no decrease in perceived difficulty was observed when students engaged in post-editing MT output.
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